1. Listen to AVÉ sing the Bach Chorale BWV 115 together. Model the teacher moving to the phrases – paying particular attention to the repeated first phrase. Use scarves or hands in an arc to denote or accentuate the feeling of a line.

2. Listen again and draw the vocal line in the air and then on a sheet of paper making sure you use the same shape for the repeated first phrase.

3. Sing the melody (top soprano part) of the Bach Chorale BWV 115 with the English text. Click here to view the score.

4. If you are able, try singing it with the German text as AVÉ sing it the first time through. Click here for a copy of the German text.

1. Listen to AVÉ sing the piece all the way through. What do you hear? (it is sung in different languages each time). Encourage the students to identify the different languages:

   The first time AVÉ sing the chorale it is sung in German

   The second time AVÉ sing the chorale, the soprano Katie Noonan sings in the language of the Gubbi Gubbi people – translated by Lyndon Davis. These people are native to Southern Eastern Queensland, where Katie comes from.

   The third time AVÉ sing the chorale, the tenor Andrew Goodwin sings in the language of Gadigal people – translated by Joel Davison. The Cadigal, also spelled as Gadigal and Caddiegal, are a group of Indigenous people whose traditional lands are located in Gadi, on Eora country - the location of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, where Andrew comes from.

   The fourth time AVÉ sing the chorale, the Mezzo Soprano/Alto Fiona Campbell sings in the language of the Noongar people – translated by Gina Williams. These people live in the south west corner of Western Australia, where Fiona comes from.

2. Watch AVÉ perform the Bach Chorale on the ABC program ‘Q and A’. Click here to view the video.

3. Encourage the students to identify the soloist who is singing in each of the three different languages. How do their parts differ? (The soprano Katie Noonan and tenor Andrew Goodwin sing their parts using the soprano melody; whilst the Alto/Mezzo Fiona Campbell sings her part using the alto melody)

4. Encourage the students to identify how the other singers sing their parts when the different soloists are singing in language:

   Sometimes they hum, other times sing with a soft ooh sound. What is the effect of this?

   Do the parts swap or change at all?

   Listen in particular to the Gadigal verse and what happens when the tenor sings the melody. Can you hear a new line in the texture? What has happened? (Katie is singing the tenor line an octave higher - in her voice range - and it becomes a sort of descant).

   Discuss what a descant is. See the Resources for this activity.

5. Observe how the group use eye contact when they are singing and how they interact as an ensemble. Discuss how the group achieves such a beautiful blended sound.

1. As a research exercise, identify the Aboriginal language of the country on which your school or organisation exists. Explore what languages are spoken in this area.

2. If you have a connection with the local language nest holders you may be able to approach them to assist with a translation of the English text for the Chorale.

English text:
Therefore, let us always
Watch, plead, and pray
since fear, need, and danger
ever nearer approach;
for the time
is not far
when God will judge us
and annihilate the world.

Resources to assist with translation from local language holders:

Terri Janke is a leader in Indigenous law in Australia – there is useful a TED Talk talking about how her work started:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfS11_Dl6ew

The Australia Council Indigenous Cultural Intellectual Property protocols were developed by Terri Janke and give you much insight into how to go about the process. Click here to access.

On Terri’s website, you’ll find lots of great resources, and there is also a useful summary of the protocols she has developed. Click here to access.

Encourage the students to do a research project on the Church Cantata BWV 115 Chorale ‘Straf mich nicht in deinem Zorn’. The following information could be useful:

Johannes Sebastian Bach wrote over 400 Chorales of which BWV 115 is one. They were mainly based on religious texts and were sung by four-part choirs or sung by four-part choirs with an orchestral accompaniment.

BWV 115 was originally from a Cantata Mache dich, mein Geist, bereit (Make thyself ready, my spirit) first performed on the 5 November 1724, the 22nd Sunday after Trinity. The text was written by Johann Burchard Freystein (1697) and the tune was after a secular melody written by Zahn in 1681.

The Gospel for the day is the parable of the unjust steward (Matthew 18:21-35), but the text, which takes its point of departure from a hymn (chorale) by Johann Burchard Freystein, makes no direct reference to the story. Instead, it concentrates on exhorting the soul to beware the wiles of Satan by means of prayer, and prepare for the Last Judgement. Bach uses six of the ten stanzas of the hymn, opening, as is customary in the chorale cantatas, with a fantasia in which the melody of hymn (attributed to the seventeenth-century German composer Johann Rosenmüller) appears throughout as a cantus firmus in the soprano line. The alto, tenor, and bass choral parts are supported by flute, oboe d'amore, strings and continuo have free, often highly contrapuntal parts. Source.

You can find out more about Bach Chorales at http://bach-chorales.com

1. Try singing the chorale in 4 parts. Click here to view the score.

2. Explore other Bach chorales and how they differ from BWV 115.

3. Explore other compositional ideas related to the student’s experience/landscape they could put into language.

Music Stage 3: Mus 3.1, 3.4

Music Stage 4: MU4-PER-01, MU4-LIS-01

Music Stage 4: ACAMUM095, ACAMUM097, ACAMUM098

Music Stage 5: ACAMUM100, ACAMUM102, ACAMUR104, ACAMUR105

• Recording of AVÉ singing the Bach Chorale BMW 115 found at the top of this page.

• A selection of scarves or similar objects to explore the shape of the phrases with

• paper and coloured pens

• Notation for Bach melody with English text. Click here.

• English and German text. Click here.